The disclosure relates to electrical connector assembly for connecting a lead wire to a press stud of a medical electrode, comprising a cover part and a contact component for providing a mechanical and electrical contact to the press stud of the patient skin electrode, and connecting arrangements for connecting lead wire to the contact component.
Electrocardiogram, ECG or EKG is a non-invasive test used to measure electrical activity in the heart. Electrocardiogram creates a graph that represents the normal phases of activation of the heart.
In electrocardiogram measurements electrical sensors called electrodes, i.e. patient skin electrodes are attached to predetermined positions on the arms, legs, and chest to record electrical activity and help assess heart function.
There is a global need to lower the costs of healthcare. This is due to the fact that average age of the whole population rises continuously, and therefore there are considerably more elder people that earlier and that is the reason why there are continuously increasing patient costs for public and private healthcare sectors.
The other need in healthcare is to reduce risk of cross-contamination between patients, for example with single patient use medical devices. These single use medical devices must be affordable to the care giver.
Owing to the facts above there is also a growing need for lowering the manufacturing costs with the electrocardiogram accessories. When carrying out efforts to lower the costs it is however extremely important simultaneously keep the reliability of the contact to the electrode in a safe level. Mechanical durability, electrical contact and signal quality must not be sacrificed during optimization efforts for costs.
Detachable connector, for example a snap connector, instead of integrated electrodes is necessary because the electrodes may need to be replaced during for example hospital stay of the patient. By replacing only the electrodes, and not the cables, total cost level of monitoring is considerably less when compared to use of integrated electrodes, i.e. technique in which also the cables must be replaced in situations when electrodes must be replaced.
Typical known prior art electrocardiograph snap connector assembly comprises a moulded plastic cover, a metallic top half, a bottom half for a spring element and a spring element for creating contact and normally further a lead wire, i.e. four or five parts if the lead wire is counted.
The number of parts lead to rather complicated and laborious manufacturing process in which there are seven cost rising manual steps, i.e.:                1. Cutting the spring wire        2. Forming the spring wire        3. Attaching the spring wire to the bottom half        4. Attaching the base and the spring to the top half        5. Preparing the lead wire, cutting and peeling of the outer and inner isolation        6. Soldering of the lead wire to the top half        7. Moulding of the plastic cover        
In this connection it must also be understood that soldering of the lead wire to the top half needs perfect temperature and skilled personnel leading to rising of the costs.
As described above the assemblies known from the prior art comprise numerous forms of medical clips. Said solutions are generally formed from a moulded plastic body having an embedded electrically conducting infrastructure that is exposed in a female aperture for connection to a post of a medical electrode. Electrically conductive element is usually formed from several independent metal parts which are assembled together to for a final element. Number of various parts are often considerably high in the solutions known from the prior art which increases costs of said solutions.
Increased use of electrical instrumentation in the medical field has created increasing demands for inexpensive but reliable medical terminal connector. The medical field is still today seeking to find a highly economical, reliable and secure medical terminal connector. The situation described has become even worse in the later years because the number of the elderly people rises very rapidly and economical demands are very strict today.